$1,000 iPhone App Offers a BARBRI Alternative for Calif. Test Takers

The most expensive iPhone app costs $999.99, but the high cost may not deter some would-be lawyers.

The app, BarMax CA, is a prep course for the California bar exam, TechCrunch reports in a story reprinted by the Washington Post.

“So what do you get for your $1,000 BarMax CA app? A lot, actually,” TechCrunch writes. “The app is over 1 gigabyte in size, which is the largest application I’ve ever seen. It includes thousands of pages of materials as well as hundreds of hours of audio lectures.” On request, BarMax will also send users electronic copies of paperwork.

The app is the brainchild of Mike Ghaffary, a Harvard law grad who says he was amazed at the $4,000 it cost for BARBRI’s course with iPod audio notes. (BARBRI has expanded its iPhone app, and now makes all its lectures and study notes available through an app that is free to those who upgrade to its mobile course.)

Ghaffary created BarMax CA with the help of some app developers and other Harvard law grads, the story says. Ghaffary serves as an adviser to the team, and works as director of business development at TrialPay, which pairs online shoppers with companies making special offers.

BarMax is expanding. It plans to have iPhone bar exam apps available for New York and five other states by the end of 2010, according to TechCrunch.

Updated on Jan. 22 to clarify that the BARBRI app is free only with the upgraded mobile course.